Fragrance is an important element that creates, for example, preference, a sense of luxury, a sense of ease, and expectations for the effect for products and the like. Furthermore, a distinctive fragrance provides a product differentiation effect and the capacity for attracting customers. On the other hand, in order to control, for example, a long-lasting property and balance of fragrance, generally, a fragrance is imparted to a product using a fragrance composition in which a plurality of fragrance materials are mixed together. It is required for the fragrance materials composing the fragrance composition to be highly harmonious with other fragrance materials.
Cuminyl nitrile, which is a p-isopropylbenzonitrile having a cumin odor, is known as a fragrance material having a cyclic structure and a nitrile structure, while, for example, Peonile (Givaudan), which is 2-cyclohexylidene-2-phenylacetonitrile having grapefruit-, geranium-, and rose floral-like odors, is known as a fragrance material having a cyclohexane ring and a nitrile structure. (Non-Patent Document 1).
In addition, Patent Document 1 describes that 3-cyclohexyl-2,2-dimethylpropanenitrile has intense mint-, marine-, and spicy-like odors, while Patent Document 2 describes that β-(2,4-dimethylcyclohexyl)propionitrile has a spicy caraway fragrance and the unsaturated compound thereof has a herbal-spicy and green fragrance. Furthermore, Patent Document 3 describes that 5-cyclohexyl-3-methylpentanenitrile has wax-, fruit-, cinnamon-, formic acid-, and lemon-like odors.
Very roughly speaking, fragrance materials have similar fragrance notes when they have similar structures to each other, but there are many exceptions. Particularly, when a plurality of substituents are combined to change the fragrance note, it is difficult to predict how the fragrance note will change and it also is difficult to predict the harmonicity with other fragrance materials.